Frankly speaking, I don’t really fancy that kind of competition. A kind of competition where all girls should line up, be heavily made up and be forced to smile and put their hands on their waist for hours while all people are judging, cheering and booing them at the same time.

I know on and on again they stated that it’s not only about beauty which is considered, but also the inner beauty; referring to intelligence and behavior. But, somehow we have to admit that those contestants have fair skin, thick hair, good body posture, and excellent arrangement of teeth.

The Beauty Pageant is always supported by a company which sells lipstick and stuff. Women should be aware that it was made to shape the society’s concept of beauty. Being intelligent and well-behaved are not enough, you have to be what-they-call-as-beautiful, just like the winner of the beauty pageant. When you’re beautiful but you’re not intelligent, you’re still forgiven, moreover you still can survive. But when you’re not intelligent let alone you’re not considered to be beautiful, you won’t be able to compete in this modern era. That’s what I think is implied from the Beauty Pageant.

I’m not saying that women should stop wearing make-ups. Fyi, I usually wear lipstick and eyeliner. I’m just saying that Beauty is not a thing which is appropriate to be scored in a competition. Women should define their own beauty. They shouldn’t let others define beauty for them. We can have different concepts of beauty. But, what I think is that all women in the world were born beautiful. God only creates the best, there’s no typo or rejected products.

Beauty is in the soul and it’s created by The Almighty. The artificial beauty is made by human, and it gives women nothing more than a temporary satisfaction.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

I started writing my diary (again) last night, and I thought it will be nice to share it here; and here’s what i wrote…

Dear Diary,

To be honest, I’ve written several diaries before this one, but I haven’t succeeded to maintain it well. What I can say about myself is that I’m a good starter but I’m pretty bad at being committed to any particular thing. Take this “Diary writing” activity as an example. The first time I wrote my own diary was when I was in elementary school. I can recall the shape, the color and even the smell of the book. My first diary was a gift for my, if I’m not mistaken, 8^th birthday. So, I was in the third grade of Elementary school at that time when I started my own diary. The diary was pretty nice, and classic. It has musical theme on the cover. It’s not so clear any more, but I can still remember that it wasn’t thick, quite thin, and light. The color was a combination of light brown and yellow. My favorite was that it had a lock on it, complete with two small keys, one for a spare. I don’t really remember exactly what I wrote there. But, I can remember that I wrote several poems. Probably it was for my mother, or my crush back on elementary school. After that, I had several diaries, and I never ran out of paper at that moment, since I get bored so easily in writing diaries, so most of the time I just completely forgot where I put my diary.

But somehow, sometimes that strong will to write suddenly occur. Anything can be a trigger, any experience, like a long talk or a discussion with someone, a lousy TV program, a moving story, a disgusting movie, or maybe an inspiring book. Just like today, the moment when I started to write my diary again.

I read two pages of The Freedom Writers Diary. Well, it ain’t precisely two pages of the real “Freedom Writers Diary” since I have just reached the foreword which is written by Zlata Filipovic (who is mentioned in this book as the author of “Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo”). And, I hate to agree with certain critics who said that the “Freedom Writers” movie is not as well pictured, not as moving as the book. Well, I guess it happens all the time right? And somehow, it took me only two pages to decide that I have to pass this book to someone else immediately, I certainly have to share this reading experience with my students. The idea of this book is strong and contagious. Can you imagine two pages of foreword can light the fire on my dark study room, encourage me to start writing my dairy again?

Ms. Ika (one of my colleague in the University, and of my best friend) told me that this book is a page turner. You just can’t stop reading. It gives you fuel to pump up the class. It might sound like exaggerating, and might be overwhelming at the same time, but somehow, it does. I wonder if someday I can write this kind of book, a kind of book that will change people’s world. A book that can break the system. But I can see already that this book had done something to Ms. Ika. Yesterday when we had a lunch with Courtney, … it was a simple lunch and a very long conversation in addition, she proposed me to have a kind of English Club that Courtney had suggested before, to give students room to explore and improve their capability as well as their critical mind. I agreed at once. Frankly, I can’t hardly wait to start, but I just don’t have a clue what kind of program that we are going to have in this English Club. But I’ll figure it out soon.

By the way, I found a very interesting, intimidating and as well inspiring quote from Zlata Filipovic’s foreword on “The Freedom Writers Diary”,

It would be easy to become a victim of our circumstances and continue feeling sad, scared or angry; or instead, we could choose to deal with injustice humanely and break the chains of negative thoughts and energies, and not let ourselves sink into it. Writing about the things that happen to us allows us to look objectively at what’s going on around us and turn a negative experience into something positive and useful. This process requires a lot of work, effort and greatness, but it is possible,…

Some simple words tied together and turn into a very moving quote. So it’s true that we don’t have to use sophisticated language all the time to talk about a very crucial issue. We just have to tell it with such a pure heart. In pure heart comes wisdom.

And I completely agree to Zlata. It’s difficult but it’s possible. Well, then I have an excuse of my being lazy to write my diary. *wink* lol

Guess, a lot of effort will worth the price later on someday.

So, again I will say… WRITE YOURSELF DOWN!

1. Write a narrative paragraph about the scariest moment in your life.
2. Choose one of this picture and write a descriptive paragraph about it.

or

Notes:

a. The outline should be prepared before the test and developed during the test.

b. The outline should be attached on the answer sheet.

c. Students may not consult the dictionary and should work individually

So.. I have read all the blogs, but unfortunately I cannot give comments on some blogs, and don’t ask me why, cuz frankly speaking, I have no idea, maybe you can ask Wen  about it. So for those whose blog hasn’t been commented yet by me, please, do something with your blog okay?

Well… it’s been a long holiday, but a dull one for me. I don’t really like holiday when it comes with no activity. Boring. No memorable stories. Just want to get rid of it soon.

So, can’t hardly wait to get back to campus and meet you again guys! hahaha… (which i believe that you don’t agree with me, I know how students love holidays.. especially a long one ^_^) 

Enjoy the rest of your holiday, cuz your next assignments are on the way…. fufufufufu… ^_^

Anyway, whatever reason they have in mind for writing the blog is fine for me. I know, it’s a little bit unpleasant when you have to do something that you don’t like. But, what’s good about being a lecturer like now is that I am allowed to make my students to do something unpleasant for them. Hahaha.. *devilish laugh*

But hey, guys… trust me, maybe you feel like you hate writing now. But someday you’ll find out that it’s something that you won’t regret.

I know for some people writing is like tormenting, evenmore in the language that you don’t speak everyday. But if we want to master a certain language, we should practice a lot. Cuz language is simply about adaptation. It’s not really related to one’s intelligence. Well… frankly, I make this statement without any reference, but I can utter this statement outloud simply because I’ve learnt from the experience.

Let’s not talk about learning English spesifically. I’m talking about any language in general. When I was in Bandung for my bachelor degree, I am surrounded by people who mostly talk in Sundanese. I don’t even speak Sundanese! I felt like alienated at that time. But then if I want to survive there, I have to be able to understand the language. Cuz, most of the time people tend to speak Sundanese even to strangers. All people, the drivers, my landlord, shopkeepers, my friends,  including my lecturer at that time. After that I learned Sundanese bit by bit, I seldom ask the meaning of few words that I heard, I just listen to them when they talk, and try to figure out the meaning from the context. (Doesn’t it sound familiar? defining some words from the context hahaha you find it a lot in Reading Comprehension and SEE you can apply that to your everyday’s life! Isn’t that awesome?!)

Back to my story.. And in 2 years, I could speak Sundanese.. though not a very fluent one. But it  proves that language is actually a matter of adaptation. You have to get used to the language. You gotta be familiar with that language (That’s why homestay program is very effective).

And what happened when you don’t make your self familiar with the language anymore? Just like me after 3 years leaving Bandung, I can’t speak Sundanese anymore. Only a very few words  that I still remember. And for your information, once my native friend from the States, who stayed in our country for about 6 months to teach English in a local vocational Senior High school, said that her English is getting lower, she sometimes forget some words in English, can you imagine that? She was born speaking English! It’s simply because most of the time she had to use easy English to teach the children and to communicate with people. And she couldn’t find many people talk in English here. And when she can find some, she wasn’t able to talk with those people  all the time.

Now if we speak about English, we’re not that lucky to have many native speakers around. So all we can do is finding our people who can speak English and try to practice with them frequently. Find a sparing partner. But, somehow, it’s not that easy. People sometimes are too lazy or to embarrassed to use English as one of their daily language. Cuz they’re afraid of being teased by others or maybe being considered as an arrogant freak. (Thanks to Cinta Laura for this! She’s so lame.. hehehe). But hey, I talk in English with my friends (who also speak English)  everytime we’re together, and if people stare at us like we’re a bunch of freak, I’ll say… “What? Anything wrong with speaking in English? I’m not doing something immoral or anything…  (>_<) Doh! )

Well now if you can’t practice that much, the only thing you can count on is WRITING. Cuz when you’re writing, you have a moment with yourself without any interruption from others. You don’t have to mind people teasing by comparing you with Cinta Laura. You’re free. Writing is your private and intimate moment. (overwhealming heheh)

So what are you waiting for? start chatting, watching western movies, listening to western songs, and writing your journal in English now!

p.s:  feel free to leave some  comments!

I told my students to write in a blog few days ago. I tried to encourage them to write a journal frequently. Not that I want to force them but I think it’s good for them to improve their skills related to English. But not only that, I find that writing can sharpen your mind and help you to cope with your personal problem. If you don’t buy it, that’s fine. But once you do it, you’ll see that it works well.  Just let the words come out. Pour the thought out of the pot. Unleash your imagination.

Gee… Guess I’m getting overwhelming now. \(^^)/
Just write. And you can  see who you really are and what you really want.